Disco, not Discourse

Amapiano holds at its heart, the jazz idiom, peppered with deep house undertones.

No doubt, the genre has morphed since its early underground days as a sub-shoot of keyboard-heavy deep house.

Many recent amapiano hits hardly contain the keyboard solos that honoured the genre with its name.

The most significant page that Amapiano has pulled from jazz, however, is the idea of fluidity within groups. It’s not uncommon to see the head of one collective be the tail of another.

This is the foundation from which groups like Mapara A Jazz, Jazzi Disciples and Zer012’s Finest have fashioned their music; a revolving door of members and collaborators who orbit around a musically-trained core.

"Amapiano as a genre is quite unique. As you can see there are no rules," says Dj Somebody with a gleeful glimmer.  "You can just wake up one day and say, 'Monate mpolaye, o ngwana mang wena? Ngwana daddy' and you just put a nice beat to that. You can’t go wrong with this genre."